Providence Act 3 Limited Edition Hardcover (PROVIDENCE LTD HC)

A Lovecraft fan's dream comic! This review covers the whole series, issues 1-12. It is a graphic novel, and anyone reviewing the first or second hardcover is completely missing the boat. Doing so is like attempting to review a major novel with only one third and then two thirds published. Only now can this work be properly reviewed, and critics who try to compare this volume with the first, then the second are simply revealing how little they understand not just literature and specifically literature in a graphic format, but how they simply do not understand period. A few initial truths: (1) this work, although anyone can read it, including anyone who hasn't a clue as to who H. P. Lovecraft is, or who is only slightly familiar with HPL, nevertheless is aimed primarily at long-time fans of Lovecraft. If others can enjoy it too, I'm sure Moore would say "Fine by me!" But the audience he has in mind are HPL fans, and specifically, long time fans. Like himself. And your obe'd't servant. (2) As is true with some of his other works (e.g. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series), the narrative sections, here Robert Black's journal, or as it is called, his Commonplace Book, are crucial to the overall story and for in-depth comprehension of the work. That's right. You need to read these, and not skip over them "for the pretty pictures". This is absolutely crucial in the first volume where Moore gives some of the historical background to the Stella Sapiente group. Also, later on, do NOT skip the parish newsletter of the Church of St. Jude because it is a serious hoot! You see, words, the power of words, even in a narrative that, at first, just seems to retell what you've just read, are at the absolute core of what Moore is getting at in this work. So, suck it up Herman, and read the words, ALL of them! (3) Moore is regarded as one of the most cutting-edge and creative writers working in comics today. This, Providence, may very well be his absolute masterwork because he is deliberately crafting an extended work that operates on many levels at once. The two most visible examples of this are the non-linearity of several sections (especially the concluding, powerful question about time itself) and the numerous references to HPL's work, especially in how he recasts the essence of several stories to bring out amazingly disturbing elements via specific historical references. Yet it is through Moore's deliberate embrace of the post-modern trope of inter-textuality that sets this work apart. In this case, Moore uses real, known human beings as characters (HPL himself, as well as Lord Dunsany and some others) to refer to the 'history' of Lovecraft and more particularly to what happened to Lovecraft's works after he died. By doing this and explaining this history (as the characters do), Moore brings out within the work itself the main point he has been building to, namely that words are power. Words are magic. They are magic because words change things. Words change people. More about this at the end. The work opens with several panels that are the viewpoint of someone reading a letter, then tearing it up. This is not explained and the question of its meaning hovers in our minds as we begin the story of newspaper reporter Robert Black and the beginning of his quest (in 1919) to uncover the truth of a mysterious occult group called the Stella Sapiente ("Wisdom of the Stars"). This narrative start also includes a great reference to contemporary writer (in 1919) Robert W. Chamber's The King in Yellow, which had a great influence later on Lovecraft. The opening panels are eventually revealed as pointing to the death by suicide of Robert Black's lover, prompting the reader to consider Black's own gay sexual desires which he, living in the time he does, keeps hidden. The theme of 'what is the truth?' plays back and forth between Black's hidden, interior life and the external Stella Sapiente group. Who is hiding, and what are they hiding? This research (quest) brings Black into contact with numerous odd, even strange characters in New York and then in Boston and other New England environs. Along the way (in vol. 1 and 2) as the reporter interviews people and they tell him their story and about their experience of the Stella Sapiente, we are treated to the core plot elements of HPL's most famous stories: Cool Air, The Horror at Red Hook, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Thing on the Door Step, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Pickman's Model. Some of these are quite ingenious as when Jacen Burrows does several panels which make no sense at first but which the reader later realizes are events seen from the viewpoint of Wilbur Whateley's monstrous brother. Another is when the Jewish yellow star begins showing up in reference to the Shadow Over Innsmouth's Deep Ones thus foreshadowing the Nazi persecution of the Jews, with the Deep Ones becoming a metaphorical prophesy of this real life horror. Which becomes even more uncomfortable when we realize that Lovecraft's conclusion of that famous story ends up with the Deep Ones being rounded up by ordinary US policemen (perhaps with FBI help) and their home under water destroyed by US Navy submarine attack is paralleled by the Nazi's rounding up Jewish families and destroying their homes and synagogues. All through these first two volumes the Lovecraft fan can take much delight with the way Moore and Burrows utilize the basic stories of HPL, turning them into something that gets more and more sinister as the narrative progresses. Truly unnerving is the second volume's portrayal of the confusion of time. This starts from Black's reading of Hali's Book of The Wisdom of The Stars, the model for what Lovecraft would later call The Necronomicon. Because he read these words, something incredibly disturbing happens to Black. Notice that the words have power, the power to change, even rearrange time itself. Even in translation these words have amazing power. it's easy to let this notion slip away because of the events that begin to unfold. Yet, in a real sense, the power of the WORDS in this BOOK (by Hali) are the key to what Moore and Burrows are up to. From that very disturbing sequence we move into Moore's presentation of the core of Pickman's Model and then of HPL's Dream Land stories (The Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath, The Statement of Randolph Carter, Through the Gates of the Silver Key), the latter thru Black's extended conversations with "Randall Carver". It is Carver who eventually introduces the reporter to Lovecraft, and it is in this, the most extended sequence of the work, that things come to a head for Robert Black. And definitely not in a good way, because every Lovecraft fan knows that there are only two options available for a Lovecraft protagonist. . . To have the man himself, HPL, as a main character in this work meant that Moore and Burrows had to be absolutely accurate in their portrayal of HPL, along with the background images. That they have been is powerful testimony to the research they have done to keep this part of the work as accurate as possible. HPL's dialogue sounds quite accurate to me, and I say that for having dipped into the collected letters of HPL, both from Arkham House and those from Necronomicon Press. The drawings show Jason Burrows has also definitely done his work. For example, the frontispiece of Vol. 3 is a very accurate rendering of the house on Benefit St (in Providence) that HPL made famous in his novella The Shunned House. I know because I have almost the same picture, framed, from when I toured Lovecraft sites in Providence back in the early 90s. Accurate also are drawings of HPL's home in 1919 at 598 Angell St., the New York Herald building and, most especially, St. John's Church, the setting for The Haunter of the Dark. (and this church has been demolished for some time now). Moore and Burrows know the homes HPL occupied and it is no light thing that when Robert Black is in Providence, he stays at 66 College Street, the last home of Lovecraft. The denouement of the main narrative with Robert Black occurs in this home. Burrows draws the view outside of Black's window, a view of Providence with St. John's church in the distance as seen from Black's room. It's more than a little impressive that Burrows has duplicated the exact, same view that HPL saw of St. John's church from his room, which was the corner one, as was pointed out to me when I was in Providence, and that he had his desk in front of this window, as does Robert Black. I have a photograph from near the house looking towards the church, which is seen in my photograph as a faint, dark figure. To my amazement the drawing Burrows has produced (specifically, vol. 3, pg. 24, second panel, where HPL is looking out the window) is nearly a copy of my photograph. It's not that Burrows saw my photo; obviously, he did not. But it is more than impressive that he took such careful pains to illustrate this so precisely here and as the story progresses with the church drawing closer and closer, precisely as HPL writes in The Haunter of the Dark. (The name of the protagonist, Robert Black, is Moore and Burrow's little nod to what so many HPL fans know, namely that Robert Bloch,who later became famous for writing the novel on which Hitchcock based "Psycho", in his younger days was a huge fan of HPL. As an up and coming writer in 1935, Bloch wrote a story ("The Shambler From the Stars") in which he killed the main character who was modeled very much on HPL. A year later HPL returned the compliment to Bloch by publishing "The Haunter of the Dark" killing that story's protagonist, one Robert Blake.) The conclusion of the whole story arc in volume 3 (actually issue #12) is satisfying and wonderfully evocative, because it is here that Moore pushes the novel out of the realm of simply an adventure or horror story into making his readers contemplate just what it is words do. they are powerful. they are magic. He (or rather his characters) ask, Why did HPL's stories last? More telling, just why did HPL become so popular beginning in the 70s? And why did (and do!) some very intelligent people take HPL seriously, not just as a writer, but as a prophet? Moore, himself not just a writer but also a 'magician', i.e. not an illusionist but a practitioner of magic, knows deeply the power of words. (Incidentally, the fact that Moore is a practitioner of magic comes out at when, taking their cue from Derleth's "The Lurker at the Threshold" where Yog-Sothoth, the key & gate to the 'outer ones', is said to be many spheres, Moore and Burrows picture Yog-Sothoth very much like the Sephiroth, the Tree of Life, as discussed and depicted in the collection of Jewish mystical writings called The Cabbala, specifically the Book of Zoar, which is one of the foundational texts in Western magic theory) At one point, toward the end, Moore has one of the characters say that if spells and such did not have words, there would be no magic, that they would not work. And that's what Moore is ultimately trying to explore, the incredible power of words, what they do to people, to institutions, to civilization itself. Even to time, and to the repetition of time. At the end the reader is tipped off his/her objective, reader stance by being forced to consider that the world we live in is simply a set up for a playing out of themes that are similar but different each time they are played out, and just which one is happening now may actually be up for grabs. The fact that we apparently inhabit a multiverse, as is pointed to by quantum mechanics, does not reassure one. The opposite, in fact. Then who really knows what is true? And who has the power to tell. . . . it is not we who have the power; it is the words that have power, and the words of the tale are far greater than the teller. All of that being said, the bottom line is that this work, all three volumes (issues 1 - 12) is an amazing homage, created by two outstandingly gifted artists, to Howard Philips Lovecraft. It is an incredible tribute wrapped up in an exciting, tense sometimes downright scary story, a profound tribute to an author who used words in a unique and amazing way that spoke and continues to speak deeply to those who take the time to actually read his words.

Consider this my 5-star review of Providence as a whole.I must admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Lovecraft's writing. From what I've read (and I confess, it's only a limited slice of his total body of work), the actual stories and narrators get kind of stale, but what I really like about his work is the kind of horror it creates. I'm drawn to fiction that peels back at our reality and hints that there is far more to it than we can perceive, and maybe we can't trust that perception as much as we might like. It's a theme of my favorite horror film The Shining, and it's the premise of From Hell, one of my very favorite books and another of Alan Moore's masterworks.So in that case it's really fun to see his interest in that subject matter manifest in these strange, interesting and complex books. The care and detail that Alan Moore pours into his worlds is just a delight. You can tell how much he researched Lovecraft the man AND the myth, as well as the towns and villages in which our story (and Lovecraft's) take place. There's even space for some dry humor. I also really enjoyed the little things that Moore adds to this world that are no so much fantastical as they are representative of an alternate technological history, both here and in Neonomicon. Everything is presented as realistic to 1919, but then there are these "Exit Booths" in NYC Parks where people go to commit suicide by gas chamber. In both series, portions of some cities are shielded by massive domes, without explanation. In the 1990s/current day setting of Neonomicon, there are street-side fax booths in place of phone booths. It's a striking amalgamation of ideas that really sets the tone for something being seriously amiss in this world.You WILL NOT understand this volume in particular (and Providence as a whole) if you have not read Neonomicon, to which Providence is kind of a prequel AND sequel. Characters from Neonomicon appear here without a shred of explanation as to who (or what) they are; you cannot treat these as different, independent works. What I liked so much about Neonomicon was that it is accessible if you have even passing knowledge of the Lovecraft world. Like if you know the general premise of the Cthulu Mythos, are familiar with Shadow Over Innsmouth and have heard or seen written an Aklo phrase, you can appreciate Neonomicon for what it is - a sort of de-construction of the Lovecraft mythos as if it were based on real life stuff and represents some kind of horrible prophecy.Providence is the story of those "real life" influences, and when I picked it up I did not realize that this was its game. I thought it would be like a Lovecraftian story that takes place in Lovecraft's times, like a straight horror tale. I'm glad that it is what it actually is, though. However, one thing that held me at arm's length from Providence is that seemingly every interaction that Black has throughout the story is a reference or an in-joke to some other Lovecraft story. In the universe of the Providence/Neonomicon stories, this makes perfect sense (as Black's experiences in Providence serve as the basis for Lovecraft's writing). Some of these references are very obvious, such as to Shadow Over Innsmouth or the Dunwich Horror, but unless you have seemingly encyclopedic knowledge and recall of Lovecraft's entire bibliography, most of these references will be lost on you while you read (this is certainly the case for me). In this sense I could not appreciate the story as much in the moment, then, but my appreciation grows considerably when reading analysis after the fact that outlines how all of these little threads and references connect. Moore has really outdone himself with the background stuff! This site is a great resource: https://factsprovidence.wordpress.com/There are a lot of really great subtleties in the art as well. The smoothness of each panel's edges indicates how "real" what we're seeing is, and in a clever way that supports the theme of the book. Are the panels with machine-smooth edges more "real" than the ones in the "real world" with rougher-hewn edges? For a world where dreams, memory and time get all mixed up, it does make one wonder! And the fact that this a graphic novel in itself as opposed to a regular novel poses challenges all of its own. There are several moments in this and in Neonomicon where you have to double check that what you're seeing on the page is actually there because it is so bizarre and transgressive. For example, consider the memorable scene in the Act 2 volume, in which a grown man's spirit (Man A), inhabiting the body of a pre-teen girl, swaps consciousness and bodies with another grown man (Man B) to rape Man B (who is gay) while he is trapped in the body of the girl, only to swap minds/bodies back at the end so Man B not only has the memories of being violently raped but also the guilt of having raped a pre-teen girl. (This only one of several times in which our characters are hoodwinked into some unwanted sexual situation by supernatural powers beyond their understanding.) Not for the faint of heart or easily offended, to be sure.Overall this was a fantastically rewarding, challenging and ultimately enjoyable series that rewards your knowledge of its subject matter while also teaching you a lot about it. Recommended for any fan of Alan Moore or horror in general. If you are a Lovecraft aficionado I'm sure you already have it and therefore this review is old news.

good value as a used bookgood readhighly recommend as used.

Amazing book. Fast delivery.

it's a must

Certamente é um trabalho de fôlego e muita pesquisa, mas o resultado é irregular. Muito confuso, excesso de personagens e trama que segue um itinerário extenso do personagem principal, que nunca se conclui, deixando o leitor com expectativas de esclarecimentos que não se concretizam ao final.É preciso que o leitor tenha muita intimidade com a obra de HP Lovecraft e com as incontáveis referências que são citadas ou apresentadas no texto, principalmente na parte final.

Robert Black ist ein homosexueller Schriftsteller im Amerika der 1920er. Keine gute Zeit also sich zu outen, aber als sein Geliebter Selbstmord begeht, beschließt er spontan ein Buch über okkultes zu schreiben und das „verborgene“ Amerika zu finden. Ein Amerika, das im Untergrund existiert und mit Monstern, bizarren Kulturen und okkulten Hexern bevölkert ist, die dem Menschen nicht immer wohlgesonnen sind. Black weiß nicht, welchen Horror er schon bald erleben wird.Alan Moore hat schon einige Male die Geschichten H.P. Lovecrafts in seinen Werken verarbeitet. Cthulhu und Co sind zum Beispiel fester Bestandteil des fiktiven Universums der League of extraordinary Gentlemen, in der die Geschichte At the Mountain of Madness in einem Album adaptiert wird. Eine Storyline in Swamp Thing mündet in einen Kampf mit Wesen, deren Moral der Mensch nicht verstehen kannn und bei Avatar Press erschienen die düsteren Horrorgeschichten The Courtyard und Neomonicon erschienen, auf denen die zwölfteilige Miniserie Providence aufbaut. Wo die beiden Vorgänger die alten Geschichten nur zitierten, adaptiert Moore hier einige der beräühmtesten Erzählungen Lovecrafts, um seine Geschichte darum aufzubauen. Die Herangehensweise beider Autoren bleibt bei aller Inspiration vollkommen unterschiedlich.Bei Lovecraft schläft der große Alte Cthulhu, eine direkte Gefahr, die eines Tages die Welt zerstören wird. In Providence ist es der Mensch, der mit offenen Augen schläft, sozusagen unterbewusst nichts von den Gefahren weiß, die im Dunkeln lauern. Im schlimmsten Fall schläft der Leser beim Lesen beider Autoren ein, was allerdings nichts mit hypnotischen Horror zu tun hat. Die Originalgeschichten Lovecrafts werden oft sehr behäbig als spannend erzählt, da sie meistens als Tagebucheinträge geschrieben sind, in denen die Erzähler recht entspannt im nachhinein ihre Erlebnisse schreiben. Der Horror wird nur angedeutet, was gruselig sein könnte, wenn die Geschichten zumindest etwas wie einen Spannungsbögen besessen. Außerdem befand sich in jedem Satz mindestens ein Adjektiv. „Terrible“ verliert seinen Schrecken, wenn es mindestens alle drei Sätze auftaucht. Providence schlägt leider eine ähnliche Richtung ein.Die meiste Zeit verbringt Hauptfigur Robert Black damit Gespräche mit anderen Leuten zu führen, die sich um das Unterbewusstsein, Fantasien und Träumen drehen. Jung wird gerne mal zitiert, um zu erforschen wie das Unbewusste und wie sie vielleicht in die Schaffung von Fiktion, zu der auch die die Realität gehört, genutzt wird. Sex ist auch ein großes Thema, ein Aspekt, der von den Monstern und den Menschen eine wichtige Rolle in ihrem Leben einnimmt. Das liest sich interessant, aber eine richtige Handlung mit Spannung gibt es auch bei Moore nicht. Richtiger Grusel kommt ebenfalls nicht auf. Ekel vielleicht, Moore hat einige krasse Szenen eingebaut, die an seinem Verstand zweifeln lassen, um dann gleichzeitig den methodischen jeder Seite zu bewundern, da Moore methodisch jedes noch so kleine Heft plant. Gruseln wird der Leser sich trotzdem nicht. Zumindest nicht bis zum Ende. Denn nach neun von zwölf Heften, nimmt die Geschichte endlich Fahrt auf, dann fügen sich alle Puzzlesteine zusammen und Moore beweist, warum er als Meister des Mediums gefeiert wird. Dann macht es klick und selbst langatmige Gespräche ergeben plötzlich im Kontext der Serie und sogar in Bezug auf Courtyard und Neomonicon endlich Sinn. In diesem Moment wird Providence brillant, ein sehr guter Comic, den man zu den großen Werken Moores zählen kann. Zu dumm, dass man bis dahin die Vorgeschichte in neun Heften lesen muss, damit es endlich Spaß macht. Zumindest da lehnt sich Moore trotz krasser Gewalt und viel Sex sehr an Lovecraft an. Der Mann aus Providence wäre bestimmt stolz.Jacen Burrows als Zeichner ist da die perfekte Ergänzung zu dem alten Briten. Der gute Mann hat für Moore schon Courtyard und Neomonicon gezeichnet, denen er mit sehr expliziter Gewaltdarstellung den Hauch von Gewaltpornos gab. Das tut er auch hier und fügt noch einige freizügige Szenen hinzu, in der nicht nur Menschen ihre Geschlechtsteile zeigen. Burrows Menschen sehen immer etwas kränklich aus, so als ob es ihnen nicht gut gehen würde, als wüssten sie dass ihre Existenz nur ein fragiles Konzept ist. Als Leser fühlt man sich selber immer unruhig und möchte das Buch aus diesen Gründen zur Seite legen, aber es passt zum Thema Horror. Man möchte sich nicht damit beschäftigen oder hinschauen, aber man muss, da das Hässliche ein Teil der menschlichen Existenz ist. Diese Gedanken, die durch Burrow Zeichnungen geweckt werden tragen auch zur Qualität Providence bei, die die Serie wirklich besitzt.Providence ist ein Nischencomic, wie es ihn selten gibt. Fans von Lovecraft werden sich bestimmt an der sexuell aufgeladenen Stimmung der Comics stören, anderen wiederum dürfte die Lektüre entweder zu krass oder einfach zu langeweilig sein. Vielleicht wird aus Providence irgendwann ein Kultcomic, geschätzt von einigen Wenigen, die inspiriert werden ihre eigenen Geschichten dieser Art zu schreiben. Das hat ja damals mit dem originalen Chtulhu-Mythos auch geklappt.Fazit: Intelligent und komplex, aber das behäbige Tempo raubt der Geschichte Spannung.(Falls Ihnen der Text gefallen hat, können sie auf der Website des Webmagazins "Comicgate" weitere Rezensionen und andere Texte zum Thema Comic finden)

I’m writing this as an overview of the Neonomicon/Providence story cycle...I’ve not enjoyed a series as much as this since probably Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles. As a devotee to Lovecraft’s writing I had initial misgivings as to whether this would work but it has been an absolute triumph – I shouldn’t have doubted Moore’s writing prowess or Burrows’ superb artistry.The storyline is tight, post-modern in its inter-textuality and Mobius strip form, deftly weaving timelines and characters. I don't want to spoil the overall arc of the series, but stories such as ‘Cold Air’, ‘Dreams in The Witch House’, ‘The Dunwich Horror’, ‘The Horror at Red Hook’ and many others (including contemporary works by Chambers and Bierce) are seamlessly woven into a continuous narrative as journalist Robert Black is drawn into a strange world as he investigates an ancient occult tome with a view to writing his own novel.The whole ‘Chicken/Egg’ scenario is expertly handled being both disorientating and utterly addictive – I’m starting again from scratch to see what I might have missed... Personally, I loved the hand-written journal sections which give Robert’s first-person, internal views of the events that have recently occured as he wishes to project them to a prospective reader and also, presumably, to preserve his sanity.I would recommend this most highly for a beautiful, intelligent, eerie and most of all wildly enjoyable read for lovers of Lovecraft’s weird fiction. It brings a whole new perspective to the writing process itself as well as the subject matter.